A group of 20-somethings (college students?) stood in a sort of befuddled amazement at the principles of flight in the Air and Space. Some 'dude' was giving a blank stare to a beach ball suspended in mid-air by the Bernoulli Principle. He then said to the other 'dude' "I don't understand any of this."

Holy fuck.

Then, while walking across the Capital Mall, a young couple asked me if I knew where 'the mall' was. I told them they were standing on it.

Jesus titty fucking Christ.

For dinner I made a French take on burgers and fries - blue cheese burgers in a white wine reduction. I was a bit inspired by watching "Julie and Julia" while snowed in.

Today only furthered my belief that most of America is classless and horribly uneducated.

For any young people who have not already figured it out, start learning Mandarin Chinese. At the very least you might be able to find a job scrubbing toilets if the Mexicans don't already have the gig locked up.

Your elders have failed you.

Good Luck! You'll need it!

_________________________
I am the Devil and I am here to do the Devil's work.

Fist, I was reading your post and the lyrics of Rush's Distant Early Warning popped into my head:

"We need someone to talk toand someone to sweep the floors"

Anyway,

It also brought to mind an idea I had while pushing my kid to do his homework. He was supposed to be writing a research article using valid internet sources and just couldn't get motivated to do it.

It made me remember my days in school and how we had to arrange a trip to the library to complete a similar assignment and be focused enough to get the work done in a relatively short amount of time.

All of this begs the question:If most folks have a world of information at their fingertips, why can't they seem to make good use of it? My Grandmother uttering "you can lead a horse to water..." comes to mind.

I gave my kid a choice to do it (and do it well) at home or to go to the library and use the public computers there. I think he got the message.

There IS a lot of available information, especially on the internet, but unfortunately, there's a lot of DISinformation as well. Kids these days are not adequately taught to use critical thinking skills when reading the information presented to them. I once heard it said that gathering information from books is like sipping from a water fountain, but like trying to drink from a fire hose on the internet. There is A LOT of stuff out there.

Adding to the problem is that information's being presented two ways, either in an almost deadpan "Ben Steinish" delivery, which we usually see in information that has some value, and flashy, brash and blaring hyperbole that we see with people having an agenda and wanting to push it on the web. Print sources give you a "black and white" option... you can put your sources on the table in front of you and read, analyze and discern subtle nuances at your leisure. The web almost actively discourages taking your time and delving deeper into a subject BECAUSE of its ability to present the information (and disinformation) in a flashy way that encourages the viewer to click for more of the same. May the page with the best hype win.

To my mind, some of the disinformation on the web is the result of a morally bankrupt world society that has been lulled into believing that every idea and every crackpot notion DESERVES its own space, and that since "everybody has an opinion,"space should be given for them to state it. And they state it as fact with out proof or study. Reading WIKIPEDIA, for example, becomes a study in the suspension of personal disbelief. Instead of becoming the great egalitarian melting pot of information that it was meant to be, it's become pretty much useless as any serious form of information gathering tool, where even people who rail against taking things strictly on "faith" or "belief" regularly do so.

True enough Jake, I should have also said that I regularly tell them not to believe most of what they find on the internet without checking it out against valid information. The school gives them specific sites to use as sources.

Still, there is a wealth of practical information out there on the net. For example, my dryer quit heating a few months back so I consulted Google, figured out the problem, ordered the part and was back in business faster (and WAY less expensively) than I could have otherwise been.

This is the type of thing I meant to point out. People seem so helpless sometimes when good and practical information is readily available (also like Fist's example of the Bernoulli Principle).

Choose wisely is my mantra.

On a side note, some of the textbooks the kids bring home are full of shit as well. It's hard to win.

I'm not making a definitive statement that Toyota is the recipient of unfair treatment as of late... but it kind of seems like it to me.

I've read a lot of anecdotal stories, some valid concerns and some articles about people who can't understand that it's a good idea to keep ones floormats out from under ones gas pedal.

I'm not making light of people who were actually hurt by Totota products. I am saying that they are few and far between and that their numbers seem small to garner so much media attention.

My very tentative theory is that since the US govt is now heavily involved in the operations of GM, the media is doing its level best to make Toyota look bad so that GM can appear to be a more viable option to car buyers. It's no secret that the press is in the bag for Obama and it's no secret that a whole lot of Americans were against the bailouts and against the governmental intrusion into the private sector. Turning GM around, paying back tax dollars and handing the keys back to the private sector would make Obama look really good to a lot of people.

I had thought that the floor mats were used s a scapegoat and it was really a manufacturing flaw that was causing the accelerator to stick. Either way I don't really care about a Toyota. However, I am still very much pissed about Blowbama throwing GM a life a preserver. I laughed at those who called him a socialist, shrugging it off as conspiracy theory nonsense. And then he goes and pulls that shit. If this is some sort of plot between the media and government to boost the profits of GM at the expense of Toyota, that is another I don't care about. I'm a Subaru man myself.